Take the stress out of Christmas dinner
Hotels and restaurants in Lanarkshire are already planning their party season schedules, booking bands and organising menus.
Now is the best time to find yourself a great deal.
For some it’s the prospect of cooking turkey for the entire family.
Others fear never being able to satisfy their guests’ varied tastes – from demands for nut cutlet for the vegetarians and extra pigs in blankets for everyone else, to definitely no Brussels for the kids.
And then there’s the cost of catering for all those cousins you only ever see once a year.
Put off by the stress, cost and complication of cooking a roast dinner, thousands of families are planning to make Christmas dinner that bit more special – by abandoning the kitchen and booking into their favourite restaurant.
Christmas catering takes work before, during and after the day’s festivities and more and more people are opting to take the pressure off and eat their festive meal out.
People also want to enjoy their Christmas dinner, rather than spend all day preparing it then washing up.
New figures from the online reservations company Open Table showed that the number of restaurant reservations for December 25, 2018, rose by 45 per cent compared to the year before.
That suggests thousands of families across Britain have decided to give up on peeling spuds and sprouts and worrying about overcooking the turkey in favour of letting a professional chef do the work for them.
Preparing a complex meal you’ve seen a chef make on TV for your family of four is one thing but it’s a completely different matter cooking it for nine or more relatives.
Then there’s the fact that a lot of the skills required to prepare a meal like Christmas dinner, which our mums and grandmothers used to possess, have now disappeared.
And breaking with tradition, more people are choosing to enjoy their festive celebrations at an Indian, south Asian or Italian restaurant.
So this year why not take the pressure off yourself and let someone else do all the cooking for you and your family?
Sit back, relax and enjoy your dinner with a glass of ice-cold bubbly while restaurant chefs cater for all your needs.
One good thing about eating out is that everyone can choose a main course to their liking without you having to prepare four or five different options for your guests.
Cooking and eating Christmas dinner is about sharing and enjoying a meal together with your loved ones.
Many restaurants have special early-bird booking deals so why not make a date to enjoy Christmas dinner at your favourite local restaurant and take the stress out of your festive feast?
More often it is actually cheaper to pay for a Christmas dinner in a restaurant than what you would spend on preparing a meal at home for your loved ones.
Above all remember Christmas is about spending quality time together with your loved ones.